Only a contrarian would say winter is the best season. And that it’s actually better to hike around looking for birds in winter than any other season.
But who cares. Who even knows the word contrarian?
Cold weather and brutal single-digit winds that burn your eyes and nose make birding more stimulating. Not because of your discomfort. But because of how you feel about the birds you see.
Chicago’s winter birds are a lot like characters you went to high school with in this tough city. Sandburg’s hog-butchers. We’re talking toughness.
You ignore the cold. Ignore the tears and snot. And you get a soul-satisfying appreciation of undaunted sparrows and woodpeckers. Chickadees and nuthatches. Juncos, blue jays and shocking red cardinals.
There are even shy deer, inquisitive coyotes and nutty squirrels. All the living wild characters of our freezing woods and prairies. What’s cool about them is they don’t complain about the cold.
They don’t go around bundled in dorky scarves, hats, parkas, earmuffs and clunky boots. They go around au naturel, as always.
These are fierce and hardy wild beasts. And a reassuring statement that “we’re not alone.” Not alone in the woods, or on the changing planet. We’ve got the birds. When it’s freezing as well as when it’s not.
They stay, they last, they live. These little souls that show big guts because c’mon, it can’t be comfortable to spend 24 hours a day in this week’s below zero wind-chill, but they do it.
We see in them more than guts. But gusto. Joy of living. That’s their nature. They ARE nature. And they’re cool. Especially when it’s this damn cold!
Yep glad I was in Chicago for the cool. Go big or go home, as they say.